Black Bass Diversity – Conservation and Management

Our lab is spearheading an emerging paradigm in fisheries management that is focused on conserving biodiversity within the Black Basses (Micropterus spp.). See our featured review article Taylor et al. 2019 in Fisheries.

In particular, our research in this area focuses on:

• Genetic investigations of hybridization, population structure, and conservation status
• Species distributions, population dynamics, and individual movement within riverscapes
• Taxonomy and phylogenetic work to resolve cryptic biodiversity
• Angler interactions with black bass fisheries

Conserving Native Fish Biodiversity within Riverscapes

As human activities increasingly alter watersheds, a holistic “riverscape” approach is needed to conserve native freshwater fish biodiversity. Our lab addresses these problems by linking quantitative status data with geospatial datasets to best inform conservation actions.

Some of our work in this area includes:

• Ecological niche models and historic distribution estimates that leverage existing occurrence records and geospatial data
• Effects of riverscape fragmentation on distributions and population connectivity
• Fish population surveys to quantify contemporary detection and occupancy probabilities
• Fish assemblage changes in relation to urbanization and other landuse changes

Non-native and Aquatic Invasive Species

Non-native and aquatic invasive species threaten native fish biodiversity, particularly within human-altered riverscapes that may favor the spread of an invasive. Given the limited resources available to tackle these issues, informing management actions (e.g., removal efforts) with the best available data is pertinent.

Some aspects of our work in this area include:

• Population sizes and spatial extent estimates informed by standardized surveys and occupancy modeling
• Breeding and movement insights for cryptic invaders illuminated by nextgen sequencing and sibship analyses
• Invasion and introgressive hybridization trends across riverscape gradients
• Basic life history studies, including quantifying diet and individual growth